terra non firma

most overhyped restaurants

I dont cover restaurants much in this blog - I leave that to far more capable food writers, like jess, or daily gluttony. but I follow the chowhound boards pretty regularly, read food blogs and web sites all the time, and generally, um, devour food media. I tend to trust the recommendations of friends and blogs more than la.com or citysearch or la mag, who has never met a restaurant they didn't like and where its particularly difficult to discern the editorial from the ads. in fact, let me rant for a minute after reading LA mag's "best new restaurant" list - geisha house? seriously? I know it aspires to more serious food than your typical scene-y hollywood bar but best new restaurant? I dont think so. yet the mag redeemed itself slightly with the hungry cat, truly one of my favorite places in the neighborhood. in fact, it looks like I might be having dinner there tonight - its been far too long and a bowl of the oyster chowder might hit the spot in this crisp, new england weather we're having.so onto my other rant - din tai fung. this place has a reputation as LA's best dumpling house, particularly for xiao long bao, or soup dumplings, perhaps the most perfect food wrapped into a 2 inch dumpling. so expectations were high. when I lived in ny, trips to chinatown and flushing to joe's or goody's were common. everyEvergreen Shanghai Restaurant & Lounge - New York - Yelpone in LA raves about din tai fung, so john and trekked out to arcadia sat morning to stand in line in the rain at 10:15 until the place opened at 10:30. we ordered the soup dumplings, a few other dumplings, buns, and some spinach to cut thru all the pork. quite frankly, the soup dumplings were seriously disappointing. the wrapper is thin and almost translucent - good start but it was downhill from there. they're small - much smaller than ny's. very little soup in the dumpling and perhaps most egregiously, the crab didn't taste particularly fresh. john complained about the texture as well - it was a bit mealy.
so I'm having a hard time seeing what the fuss is about - it was far inferior to joe's, goody's, or even evergreen. perhaps the issue is lineage - din tai fung is an outpost of a chain based in taipei, while soup dumplings are from shanghai. tricky little din tai fung - you can't fool this jewish girl. so now the search continues - any good shanghai places with amazing soup dumplings? I'm not afraid of the SGV, nor of a B health code rating. tell me where to go.

posted by marissa @ 11:23 AM